FTC to Host Data Security Conference in Chicago

Washington, DC - The Federal Trade Commission will host a one-day conference in Chicago on June 15, 2016, on how companies can secure their products, services, and networks. The event will focus on guidance for startups and other small and medium-sized businesses about how to make security considerations a part of their companies’ culture.

FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen will provide opening remarks for the conference, which will be the fourth “Start with Security” event nationwide. The conference will bring together experts in data security to provide guidance to businesses.

The conference will take place at, and is co-sponsored by, the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. A full agenda will be made available in the weeks leading up to the conference.

In addition to holding conferences around the country, the FTC has created extensive new business education materials to help companies think about how to incorporate strong security practices.

The business guidance lays out ten key steps to effective data security drawn from the alleged facts in the FTC’s data security cases and is designed to provide an easy way for companies to understand the lessons learned from those previous cases. Available as a guidebook and a series of videos, the guidance includes references to the cases, as well as plain-language explanations of the security principles behind them.